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Topic: My 7th Butterkase (Read 5809 times)

I already saw your nubby cheese, Boofer but I'm glad you pointed me to it again because I can see that it is a little bulgy like mine. Kind of like how I feel after Thanksgiving dinner. So, maybe I won't worry. But should I worry about long it's taking to dry? I chose not to brine since iratherfly suggested that rubbing with salt is just as good. So......it's still dripping a bit and I unmolded it on Friday morning....it's Sunday now. What do you think?

If the temperature is warm and humid, it can prevent things from drying out as the cheese will just keep itself moist by sweating. If it's still damp after 4 or 5 days, just cave it and, if possible, keep it in a ripening box without any mold ripened cheeses. It should have a hard friend though, as no cheese should be alone. Then, it should be fine.

- Jeff

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The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.

Thanks for the advice, Jeff. I like the part about no cheese being alone. Maybe that's the reason, other than lack of space, that I haven't gotten into the separate cheese box solution. Like, what if they want to have a party but they can't because they're all in separate boxes??? Huh? Anyone thought of that? I do need some boxes though I guess. I need flat racks for my wine fridge first and I just can't keep up with the goat milk so I've got cheeses in all stages and I'm running out of room. I need more racks, more mats, more fridge space, etc.

I do like it. It's my "tweak" cheese, in that almost every make is quite different from the others. I've made a washed rind version twice (once by encouraging the wild b-linens, and a 2nd where I added them on purpose), and have played around with the starter amounts, and types, etc. This recent one is quite different from the previous makes, which always had very soft curds and tended to feel soft and spongy. This one is much more solid feeling. Could end up being quite dry and over acidified, or could be bang one. Will see at some point.

- Jeff

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The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.

Just a bit of an update to show the maintenance. This developes a white mold, wild geo, which forms a nice even coat. Every so often I brush it off, mostly, as this really is supposed to keep the rind clean. I suppose a brine wash could be employed, but brushing keeps it down enough. Anyway, here are two photos, one showing the full coat and the other showing it half brushed to show the contrast. Note, that brushing half the cheese reduced it from 1410 to 1406g, so 4g were removed. The weight after full brushing was down to 1404 (must have been the smaller half )

This one is progressing quite a bit differently from my other makes. All the others had a much less firm feel to them then this one. I think the extra yogurt boosted the acidity, or got something going more vigorously, as this one was sticky to the cloth as well. I think this will end up either being dry and crumbly, as in over acidified, or it could be that I've just now hit the right level of culture etc, and it will be the best one yet! I've got lots of cheeses to go through at the moment, as I still have quite a bit of my caerphilly, and when that's about done I'll have my first tomme to try out. There's also a couple semi-lactics that are just looking fantastic, though the pc coverage is very incomplete (sides are good, the two faces just have patches in the middles) so they're developing slowly. Which is good for the cheese, but hard on the cheesemaker. I also still have 1/2 a wheel of staffordshire in the vac bag, but I think I'm going to stretch that one anyway, and the full wheel of staffordshire with the natural rind (the hazel nut one) is around 3 months now too. But again, I think I'll stretch that out a few more months.

My cave is absolutely chocker full at the moment. I was thinking I might make a wensleydale this weekend, but I'm not sure where I could put it? (Be Good everyone).

- Jeff

Logged

The wise do not always start out on the right path, but they do know when to change course.

My cave is absolutely chocker full at the moment. I was thinking I might make a wensleydale this weekend, but I'm not sure where I could put it? (Be Good everyone).

Got a laugh out of your, "Be Good everyone". Took me a minute. Now, I have to ask, is it required to make the excited twiddly fingers movement like Wallace and Grommet whenever uttering the name "Wensleydale"?

Your cheeses look great and I appreciate that you post makes and photos.

I was thinking I might make a wensleydale this weekend, but I'm not sure where I could put it? (Be Good everyone).

- Jeff

So tempting... .

I was in a situation like that recently. No shelf space and whoa! there's a new cheese that'll have to go in the cave somewhere. I was forced to vacuum-seal my Tomme #6 and temporarily relocate it to the big fridge while things got reorganized. Now it's back in the cave to continue aging.

My wife asked me to make some Brie or Cams for presents. I've got a couple of 1/2 brie moulds (about 20 cm diameter), so Brie it will be. But the cheeses from these take up a whole ripening box, and my 8 litre make will produce 2 cheeses. So, I had to vac bag a few cheeses to free up the boxes.

This one is one that just went into a bag. Butterkase is supposed to be a clean rind, and only aged about a month. Well, this one is now 3 months along, and the rind has a fair amount of geo. I brush it back, but didn't get into a brine wash routine to keep it clean. However, as this cheese is one that I always seem to play with I'm not concerned. I've been meaning to age one of these out a bit, so this will be it. We'll cut it sometime in the new year, so it will be nicely done by then.

It went into the bag at 1366g, with a density of 1.11g/cm3. It's only lost 422g since brining, but the denisity is near identicle (1.12 and now 1.11 - within measurement error tolerances). Nice. A shame the curds shattered during this make, but I think it will be fine.

Okay, so you must be able to tell me this......is it okay to vacuum bag a natural rind? My wine fridge is always feeling low on space so I too think of bagging some up and moving them out or packing tighter.